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HARDWOOD RECORD 



March 25, 191T 



OKrGiN OF Color in Woods 



Color in wood is due principally to deposits or stains in and 

 among the cells. It is not necessary to inquire specifically whether 

 the coloring matter comes from the soil, or the air, or from chem- 

 ical combinations, or from fungi and bacteria within. The latter 

 is supposed to give the pleasing tone to English "brown oak." 

 The range of tones, tints, and shades is wide. Hardly a variety of 

 color can be named which is not present in some species of wood, 

 and not infrequently several attractive colors are present in the 

 same piece of wood. 



The Texas devilsclaw (Acaaa greggii) affords a good example 

 of the range in colors which a single wood may present, even though 

 the tree is small, ugly (except when in bloom), deformed in trunk. 



GOBLET MADE OF DIFFEnENT WOODS' 



They are glued in solid bloclis and then shaped by lathes, usually in manual 



training schools. A, yellow algarita. B, Bluewood. C, white holly. 



and clothed with thorns, hooks, and claws so formidable that even 

 rattlesnakes shun it. Beneath that forbidding exterior lie the 

 bands, streaks, splotches, and. layers of colored wood, so hard that 

 the novelty maker must drill holes for the nails he drives and use 

 a rasp instead of a plane in smoothing the gabbroitic surface. The 

 wood is unknown except locally, and is so scarce that one may 

 travel from morning till night through the thorny thickets which 

 line the banks of the lower Eio Grande and not see a dozen devils- 

 claw trees large enough for fence posts, but millions that might 

 make canes. The more highly the wood is polished, the more artis- 

 tic the colors and contrasts. Bough wood does not show enough 

 color to attract attention. 



Devilsclaw wood is spoke nof at some length, not because it is 

 more important than some others, but because it may be taken as a 

 type of finely-colored semitropical woods abounding in the extreme 

 southern parts of the United States. Several others may success- 

 fully challenge it for beauty. The point is, the finest woods are 

 scarce. They surpass in beauty and delicacy of tint and tone the 

 abundant and well-known economic species like cypress, birch, red- 

 wood, walnut, cherry, and others which commonly pass as colored 

 woods. 



Room for Wide Choice 



The finely colored species are not all in Florida and Texas. Th& 

 common yeUow locust (Boiima pseudacacia) makes a fine showing 

 when highly polished, but the wood's coarse annual rings spoil the 

 effect, and the wood is in more demand for buggy hubs than for 

 anything else. Nearly the same might be said of Osage orange 

 which is demanded chiefly for fence posts. So abundant is it» 

 coloring matter that it may be extracted at a profit for yellow dye. 



The exquisite tone and velvety texture, of mulberry heartwood 

 are not appreciated as they deserve. Trunks fit for balusters, 

 newels and ornaments, are split for fence posts or cut for fuel. 



There is a railroad in Cameron and Hidalgo counties, Texas, that 

 was built, to a considerable extent, with ties of huisache, lignum- 

 vitse, and Texas ebony. These were cut near the right of way and 

 were used because they were cheap and durable. They are ex- 

 tremely resistant to decay, and the contractor's only obection te 

 them is that they must be bored before spikes can be driven. The 

 fine colors of these woods appear to have caused no qualms of con- 

 science in the tie cutters, for they saw no difference in class of use 

 between a crosstie and a ukelele. A viewpoint so blunt is not im- 



SrMAXW/ELL 



SUMAC NEWEL POST ORXAME.XT 



The black and yellow stripes suggest the markings of the Bengal tiger andi 



also the uniform commonly worn by convicts. 



<;ommon. The traveler along the Hio Grande must be jirepared to- 

 have his ideas on conservation shocked by seeing the thin-blooded 

 Texans warming themselves during a "norther" by .huddling 

 round a roaring fire burning ebony. Their only objection is that the 

 richly colored wood in burning gives off an odor suggestive of 

 scorched leather, due, perhaps, to the tannin and other pigments in 

 the wood. Even the flames take on weird and fantastic hues, as if 

 the wood's colors were passing away in visible form. This tree 

 is not a true ebony, but belongs to the pea family, the same as locust. 

 and redbud. 



